Ask almost any parent how difficult it is to get their child to do household chores or other tasks and you may get a lively response. Getting children to do their chores and assigned tasks is a major cause of family arguments. But in truth those same parents themselves were likely somewhat less then diligent about doing their assigned chores when they were young.
Nonetheless chores and other assigned task are and remain highly beneficial. They reduce the workload of parents, they instill responsibility in children, the assigned chores or tasks usually need to be done, time is saved, they help integrate children into the household, and they can create the satisfaction that comes with a job being well done. Still, most people can relate to a parent angrily asking why a child's room is not cleaned and the child's often angry response.
Asking a child or teenager to do something, such as remembering to bring their cell phone, to do their homework or to perform an assigned task often fails to achieve the desired result and leads to repeated requests. The advent of smart phones, laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices only aggravates the problem as a child has other things which distract them from performing their assigned tasks. A child with un-tethered access to the Internet, multiple communication protocols (e.g. phone, video phone, email, text chatting, and text messaging), and a wide variety of digital entertainment seemingly always has something else to do.
Given that the multitude of available electronic devices may distract a child from behaving responsibly, in the prior art parents usually had to physically check whether an assigned task has been or is being completed. This could be difficult or even impossible to do.
Therefore there exists a need for a system that assists parents or others to assign tasks to be performed, to check on the status of one or more assigned tasks, and to determine if an assigned task has been completed.